Derrick White is the perfect model of Derrick White. So how does he get higher?
White occupies an fascinating place within the NBA biosphere. He has blown by each ceiling daring sufficient to attempt to include him, going from a strong backup level guard for an nameless San Antonio Spurs group to a more-than-solid backup guard on the Boston Celtics to a starter, finally changing into an totally irreplaceable keystone of an NBA champion making 118 million {dollars}.
For late-blooming second spherical picks like White, that is about 20,000 occasions higher than he most likely may have hoped for. He’s beloved in Boston, utterly uncontroversial and performs complimentary basketball that by no means will get in the way in which and makes everybody higher. How on earth may we enhance this?
Properly, should you lower by all of the birthday cake and confetti, White continues to be most likely the fifth most necessary participant on the Celtics. He’s a artful however generally restricted offensive participant who depends on constant three-point taking pictures to remain on the ground, and should outwork and out assume his opponents to beat often-daunting bodily matchups. However he’s managed to do all that with exceptional consistency, and he principally by no means misses video games.
Complacency is thus White’s largest problem for the 2024-25 season. The Celtics must get higher in the event that they wish to win back-to-back championships, and White is among the gamers with sufficient room to develop the place it’d really make a distinction. So what may he add?
Picture by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE through Getty Photographs
Whereas not precisely the height of basketball evaluation, White may do with an expanded “bag,” as his offensive sport is proscribed to the massive three of position participant strikes: straight line drives, three pointers, and off-ball cuts. That’s not an issue, however a guard of his measurement — he’s a legit 6’4” — may do with develop a submit sport towards smaller matchups, one thing each Marcus Good and Jrue Vacation have developed to nice success. Maybe White may placed on some weight and develop into a extra bodily defender and scorer slightly than counting on his innate shot blocking capacity.
White can be sneaky outdated, as whereas it doesn’t really feel like he’s been on the Celtics for that lengthy, he performed 4 years in faculty and lots in San Antonio. He’s already 30 years outdated, and the historical past of NBA guards going into their thirties is a narrative of measurement. The larger, stockier guards can often translate their misplaced burst right into a grown man’s bully ball, utilizing their craftiness and bodily maturity to maneuver the beanpole twenty-something round like sacks of potatoes. White might want to determine that out sooner slightly than later if he needs to enhance.
White may additionally maybe develop into a extra artistic passer, as whereas he does properly to maintain the ball shifting slightly than dribbling the air out of it like his predecessor Dennis Schröder, he’s nonetheless a “see it-throw it” passer, not essentially seeing the ground as profoundly as Jayson Tatum does. Vacation has by no means been a chief facilitator, and until the Celtics wish to actually advance the Level Tatum agenda, White may develop into the group’s main table-setter if he needs to be.
White’s largest energy has been his availability, which may show even deadlier than typical if White can develop into a topflight offensive participant on this league. He isn’t missing any bodily instruments, and has loads of burst and measurement. The variety of alternatives to totally run the offense has been the principle limiter to his enchancment, however we noticed the Celtics go together with a number of iterations of “Derrick White and the Bench Squad” lineups final common season. That’s one thing they need to do extra of, even whether it is only a lab experiment.
White has been every little thing the Celtics needed him to be and a lot extra. But when they wish to push their already-lofty limits, White goes to must be even cooler, and he completely may be. And I’m positive we’d all like to see that.
